Verses

From out of all of the albums in which I’ve heard that Tony Stone had most of the production on – I’ve never been disappointed. Well, Verses comes with “Listening Session,” which is fully produced by the beatcave wonder himself.

What I first took note more than anything else is the vocal arrangement on this album. The first track “Yes, Yes, Y’all” has some great singing on it. It’s also a great and refreshing way to open up an album.

If you don’t know Verses, he is a member of the group Rhymes Elect. I’m not quite sure if this is his first solo effort or what, but the album is a very good listen, thus… Listening Session. LOL. Okay, I’m silly like that.

Lets get into it. The next track is “We Do It” featuring Tony Stone and Mark J. I really like this song. It has a good feel to it. The message is on point. Why do we do what we do? We do it for love, for the kids, for the lost for the Lord!

The reason I like this album is because Verses is a straight up comedian! The song “Funky Dividends” is too funny! The song deals with putting priorities in place when it comes to money and responsibilities. I won’t get too deep into it. You’ve gotta peep it for yourself.

A song I really love to jam is “Fa La La.” The beat is hot (Tony you did your thing). The song a message to the world saying what are you gonna do when we – the Christians – come through. Because we are coming through to wreck the party on sinful foolishness! Are you just gonna live for degrading music, clothes, rims, cars, money and sex? God has much more to offer folks! Wake up!

“Ms. O’Ginny” is another funny song! Who is Ms O’Ginny you ask? Ms. O’Ginny is that TV personality that is shaking her stuff on TV to make all of the hungry “dogs” out there salivate. Why don’t you have any clothes on girl? Don’t you know children are watching? Not only that, we don’t want to see “your nasties” all over our TV screens! You’re helping the enemy push his agenda. Yes, sex sales, but there are many men getting caught up in pornography and it’s destroying marriages and much more.

When I was growing up, SOME of the hip hop back in the day was cool, but we had some of our “bad stuff” too. But, compared to today?!! Hands down we were cleaner! “Cassette Tapes and Roller Skates” talks about that. We – the artists and the consumers – need to be responsible for what we make and purchase. C’mon y’all, lets be responsible.

With 12 tracks, it won’t be long before I tell you about each song, so let me stop right here.

Go cop it!
- Rapzilla.com

Aren't you tired of the rappers that give you an album full of filler material and leave you feeling empty? Tired of the same old hip-hop? Are you looking for an emcee that grabs your attention and keeps your ear until the end of the album? If so, then Verses is the emcee for you. He's been rhyming for a minute, but this is his debut album aptly titled Listening Session.

What is Listening Session? It's feel good music from a Christian perspective. If you take all that you like about old school hip-hop and some of today's "cleaner" emcees and wrap it up in a Christian package, then you have what Verses offers in this project. The album starts off with a very jazzy coffee house laden track called "Yes, Yes Ya'll" featuring the Versomatic Harmonizers (aka his wife Chloe). It's here that Verses sets the tone for the remainder of the album by laying out smooth vocals that give you the feeling that you're in a coffee house watching him perform live on stage. It is this vibe that is carried out for the remainder of the album. You can easily see this theme carried out with tracks like "We Do It," "Love Jawns," and "Cassette Tapes & Roller Skates."

One of the things that I love about this album, aside from the dope rhymes & beats, is the content, as well as the stories behind the songs (check out the CD insert that comes with the album). One such song is "Funky Dividends" where Verses spends time talking about money and the issue of money management. For this track, he uses a college setting to really explain how this time of your life will really make or break you financially because this is where you either learn to manage your money well or be in debt. Being a socially conscious individual, Verses also hits home with the hit "Ms. O'Ginny," which talks about the issue of misogyny in the entertainment industry. This particular song is a cry to both the women and the entertainment business: 1) to the women to cover themselves up and respect their body, and 2) to the enterainment companies to quit using half-naked women to sell their music and products. Yet another track on the social tip is "Fatherless Child." This is a powerful song that deals with all of the issues that arise from boys & girls growing up without a father in the home.

Aside from keeping it on a socially conscious tip, Verses also has a bit of fun on the mic as well. "Fa La La" and "Cassette Tapes & Roller Skates" are two such songs. "Fa La La" is a song depicting Verses and Chloe goin to the club to have a good time, but the script gets flipped because of the light of Christ that radiates in their lives. For all of you that like club bangers, this is the one that's going to be on repeat at Club Virtue, the place where Christians go to have a good time. "Cassette Tapes & Roller Skates" is an old school type track that features Cult Free & Verbs. It's here that these three emcees think back to the days of the early to mid 80's when hip-hop was all about having a good time. You know, the times where you & your boys would go to the local skating rink listening to your hip-hop music on a huge boombox. And this album both begins & ends with the banger "We Do It" featuring Tony Stone & Mark J. Words just can't express how fresh that track is.

Overall, this project was a work that took well over a year to put together, and the hard work and effort clearly shines through. With production handled exclusively by Tony Stone, the production is on lock. Verses delivers fresh rhymes that are both uplifting & thought provoking. From start to finish, this is a very solid album and I can't help but to recommend that you buy it. I can't wait to hear more from this emcee in the future!
- Trailblazin' Ministries

I am savoring this. Among the words rarely used in hip-hop reviews (or, really, in reviews for any type of music) include: chaste, restrained, socially responsible, and pious. Yeah, pious. While not quite on the level of Please-Hammer-Don’t-Hurt-‘Em-sparkling-parachute-pants-terraced-sloping-hightop-“We’ve-Got-to-Pray-Just-to-Make-It-Today”-era Hammer, Iowa MC Verse’s Listening Session makes Little Brother’s The Listening look like Too $hort’s Greatest Hits. Oh, and it sounds pretty good, too.

There are plenty of reasons not to like Verses’ work: he sounds uncannily like Kanye West (a fact not helped by his referencing “Jesus Walks”); the Little Brother parallels are strong (The Listening to the Listening Session?); his sing-songy flow cloaks his average rhyming ability (few of his bars will drop jaws); and in an age with our President sets his apocalyptic, paranoid agenda with the help of “prayer” (oh, to be a fly on the wall for those conversations), Verses rides hard for Christianity. I heard the same grumblings from some sectors about the last year’s Ohmega Watts album – too preachy, too Christian – but let’s be straight up about this: you can’t have your cake and eat it too. Complain all you want about the depravity of today’s music, but don’t indiscriminately hate on positive music because it offends your religious sensibilities, or lack thereof.

Few of the songs on the Listening Session pack the visceral punch of cuts like the aforementioned “Jesus Walks” and the Wu’s “Jah World”, but perhaps that’s for the better. Instead of spewing fire and brimstone, Verses approaches his subject matter with a casual, self-deprecating playfulness: in the course of dissecting the sexualization of advertising on “Ms. O’Ginny,” he recounts his inabilities to buy M&Ms without guiltily thinking about the flesh used to peddle them on the tube; on “Cassette Tapes & Roller Skates” he reflects on the joys of listening to old school hip-hop and, well, roller-skating (has T.I. made that cool? Do two make it a trend? Is the age of the skating rink/buffet/strip club upon us?).

Even when Verses tends to get too preachy (“Yoof Rally”), producer Tony Stone keeps the album on mission, combining airy, blustery tracks that evoke neo-New-York 9th (“We Do It”) with jazzier fare (the hitting album opener “Yes, Yes, Y’all”) and harder beats (the exotic, Tuvan “Fa La La” and the bluesy, moody “Fatherless Child”).An impressive showing for any producer, underground or major.

Throughout all of this, Verses pays respect to those MCs past and present who have provided intelligent, sincere music – the Wu Tang, KRS-One, the Roots – regardless of their personal persuasion. Recognizing wisdom and knowledge in all their different forms. That’s how to get off the soapbox and onto the boombox.
- Okayplayer.com